This is an entry from our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide. Check it out for suggestions on what to buy your loved, liked, and hated ones this holiday season!

This 2011 Holiday Gift Guide entry is targeted at making computing a little more fun and futuristic - and we're even giving this one away! The Microsoft Touch Mouse is made exclusively for use with Windows 7. It's got a multitouch surface, allowing you to use natural touch gestures to perform common tasks. Basically, think of it as the Apple Magic Mouse, but for your Windows PC. It's got support for one-, two-, and three-findered gestures, and runs on 2 AA batteries. They sell for $79, but you can get one on Amazon now for $41, which is a whopping 48% discount.

Or, you can win one here! We are giving one of these Microsoft Touch Mouse prizes away as we continue our holiday giveaway series. Simply use the widget below to enter to win. We've got a lot of ways for you to enter, but don't check off any that you don't actually perform. If you do, you'll be eliminated:

Advertisement

Walmart's Black Friday 2011 ad is live, and for ambitious shoppers who venture out at midnight, the store will have a number of deals on TVs, PCs, and gaming consoles. We've listed the highlights after the break.

On the TV front, Walmart will have discounts on Emerson, Samsung, and LG sets. Samsung LCD TVs will start at $98 for a 19-inch 720p model, followed by a 32-inch 720p version for $278. The 40-inch and 46-inch 1080p models will retail for $428 and $598, respectively. Finally, a 51-inch 720p Samsung LCD TV will be on sale for $498.

Looking for a PC? Walmart is offering a 15.6-inch, dual-core HP laptop with a 320GB hard drive and 3GB of memory for $248. An HP laptop with a 500GB hard drive and 17.3-inch screen will be $388. An HP dual-core 500GB desktop with 18.5-inch monitor, integrated speakers, mouse, and keyboard will also be available for $298. A 15.6-inch Compaq Presario laptop with a 250GB hard drive will be on sale for $198.

For the gamers, an Xbox 360 4GB console bundle with Gears of War 3, Xbox Live three-month membership, and a $50 Walmart gift card will be $199. An Xbox 360 4GB bundle with the Kinect sensor, Kinect Adventures, and a one-month Xbox Live Gold membership will be $199.96, while a Kinect bundle with Kinect Adventures, The GunStringer, and Fruit Ninja will be $99.96. An Xbox Live three-month subscription card will also be $12, while an Xbox 360 wireless controller will be $49.96.

Like to draw? How about drawing on a 24-inch digital screen? Wacom today announced the Cintiq 24HD. At 24 inches, it’s Wacom’s largest interactive pen display so far.

The 24HD features a built-in 24-inch screen, which sports 1,920-by-1,200 pixel resolution. It has a 178-degree viewing angle, and 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio. The display can also be color calibrated for color-sensitive workflows.

There are 2,048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity, allowing the 24HD to detect even a single gram of force. The included Cintiq Grip Pen has a comfortable, contoured barrel that provides a natural alternative to using a mouse. Wacom also includes a number of pen nibs (tips) that are made from a variety of materials. In addition to the Standard nib, the Stroke nib includes a dual-action spring to simulate a natural brush-like feel, and the Felt nib replicates the sensation of using a felt-tip marker.

Seagate on Monday announced the availability of the new GoFlex Turbo hard drive, with a speedy 7200 rpm drive speed as well as SafteyNet data recovery.

The GoFlex Turbo gets its speedy moniker by first using a 7,200 rpm hard drive mechanism, faster than the usual 5,400 rpm mechanisms found in portable hard drives. It extends the speed with an included USB 3.0 interface, which is also compatible with older USB 2.0 ports (at a slower speed). Last, but not least, the drive has "Turbo" lettering on the side of the hard drive's case, which of course lets you know that this drive is the fast one.

For the next two and a half hours, eBay has a great deal where you get 43% off the Viewsonic VA2431wm 24-inch LCD monitor. The display usually sells for $255, so this deal brings it down to $145, saving you $109. Even better? Shipping is free. They've got limited stock, so if you're interested, head on over:

Hewlett-Packard announced today that it has worked with Google to enable its Cloud Print services on HP ePrint-enabled printers.

With the additional feature, HP ePrint printers can now print via Cloud Print right out of the box, via the PC and the beta form of the technology for Android smartphones. However, we found that the technology was clunky at best.

Users can simply "email" the document to the HP ePrint address, allowing it to directly print via the Cloud Print service. Users need to add this email address to their Google account, Google said. A list of supported printers can be found at the HP site.

Previously, users had three ways of printing from an ePrint wireless printer: connect it via USB; go through a lengthy wireless setup process; including manually entering WPA/WEP keys and other security features, as well as creating a link between the computer and router from a "one touch method" that still required users to navigate several menus on the HP printer.

Intel today announced the latest solid-state drive (SSD) family in its product line: the Intel SSD 510 Series, which is also the company's first to use the 6-Gbps SATA III interface.

According to Intel, the drives in the 510 Series offer "the fastest sequential read and write speeds of any consumer SATA SSD available today," and feature read speeds of up to 500 Mbps and write speeds of up to 315 Mbps—respectively more than twice and more than three times the rates of Intel's current 3-Gbps SSDs. (OCZ announced its own 6-Gbps SSD series, the Vertex 3, last week, and made similar performance claims.)

The 510 Series SSDs are constructed using Intel's 34nm NAND Flash memory, and are targeted at gamers, enthusiasts, and professionals (particularly media creators) who need fast transfer rates. Intel claims the 510 Series is just one of a number of major SSD products it plans to introduce in 2011.

We know how much you guys love our giveaways, and now we're giving away an HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One printer. Wondering why you should be excited about this one? Well, if you own an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you can print from those devices to this printer, as it supports Apple's AirPrint specification. It also prints up to 30 pages per minute for black, and 25 per minute for color. It's got Wi-Fi support built-in, you can email documents to be printed right to the printer from anywhere, and even two-sided printing. Oh, and it looks great as well, and does scanning and copying too.

That's it! Do that, and you are entered. However, this time we're giving our bonus entries. All you have to do is head to the Gear Live Facebook page and Like us, then leave a comment on our wall. That gets you a second entry. The contest will run through Thursday February 17th, and is open to US residents. A winner will be chosen randomly from all eligible entrants.

PC gamers have always had a leg up on us console shooters as far as precision goes. There's no match for a mouse and keyboard, even though the Xbox 360 controller managaes to get the job done quite well. Previous mouse/keyboard translators failed to mimic the true PC control feel through console because of the unique levels of "aim-assist" that console shooters incorporated. However, the Xbox Input Machine (XIM3) boasts what they call "Smart Translator" technology that manages to override the console aim schemes and reproduce true precision aiming just like true PC shooters. XIM3 includes a touch-screen display that is much more sophisticated than previous models, and can also connect with any Xbox 360 controller. Hopefully this will mean that the XIM3 is both easier to configure and cheaper than past XIMs.

XIM3 is configured to run with such popular FPS console shooters as Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Check out the video of how it works on Halo: Reach below.

The Luxeed Dynamic Pixel LED Keyboard features 430 individual LEDs to light up the board in literally every spectrum across the rainbow. Heck, you can even customize your keyboard to display a rainbow effect of colors. Not to mention that the keys can be programmed to light up individually as pressed. Furthermore, the four preset buttons change the "skin" of the keyboard, attributing unique glowing skins to run with certain video games. For instance, each key can glow in accordance to the buttons used for that game, or could just show illuminated patterns and designs.